Katie Degentesh

 

I Feel Uneasy Indoors

 

When I'm near someone missing an arm or a leg
I feel weighed down by clothes,
the faithful and celebrities

Already I have been spanked twice by my new stepdad
sometimes gay guys look at me for more than a moment
right outside the door to the boy's department

I cannot understand science.
It just got done raining like hell outside
and now it's darker than hell inside.

A fire flickered always, regardless
White paper. White wool. In the dark ...
... That was almost too much for me

The balloon is obviously greater than
whatever is around me that seems to want to scare me

And my long curly hair is all tangled

At this point, it seems to affect only driving,
but what can be done besides driving?

I had more than the Szkudlapskis
until the cops arrived

the two military guys, who sleep outside in the snow as usual
seem creepy and messed-up
as if they talk too loud in restaurants
and think all my days have been misspent

I wish they would tell me who she is

To my delight, even outside the Matrix, she is nonsmoking
and takes her anger out on a rock

The wind swollen by ill-temper
without a single bomb falling

the rubbish that people put in their bodies
pierced her eyes like shards of glass

Faced with the heroicity of this girl
I see not only Mars, but its moons

I told her, "I stand outside the gates of the world
which your sex can make a paradise."
"That is well," she replied, "but I feel uneasy."

 

 

At Times I Have Fits of Laughing and Crying That I Cannot Control

 

Susan picked up a 19-year-old at the reception
and encouraged everyone she knew to do the same

laid on his shoulder and bore him twenty or thirty children
with a wild, staring expression and strabismus of the right eye

The doctor said that was usual.
We were daily overtaken back then
With the mass of hair she had

We had to wait until she left the room
to speak to God about the vibrator,
masturbation and women's sexuality
and the vulgarity of walking

Part of a Sunday my brother and I then used to spend
in walking in the meadows and singing psalms
alternating with intervals of stupidity

But one day, just as we were beginning to sing,
I noticed on the other side of the bath
a rather large circle, set below the hallway proper

she of the hair took the fiery torch
and knelt down with the circle ever growing smaller,
until she was at the center of a group hug
in which she was heartily joined by all the merry party!

then she falls and rolls off the roof onto the ground
into a circle drawn on the floor of the garage
which doubled as a brothel containing two whores
swaying their bodies until by and by their heads were rotating in a large circle

many nasty falls I've taken into the future
are to be ascribed to Susan

 

 

I Am Easily Downed in an Argument

 

When the muezzin began the midday call to prayer
Marylyn Putrinski was already in the shower
for a rare eye cancer, her thin voice
weak and trembling in the cascade.

She got into a argument with the lady
who wore a Rainbow around her neck
about Jesus and Satan
and who was better on his computer.

This woman is a perfect fit in a party
she first found Hendrix unconscious
when he knew how to use drugs
and was too intelligent to accidentally overdose

the raging need she felt
with her husband came back to her mind
the tenderest feelings of the parental heart
that were ever reared in Southern slavery

"Mom, where did the beds come from?"
Nature must not win the game, but she cannot lose
with the assistance of her bike bell
she's already "I go back to your place ..."

you understand sexual agency,
the softer crackling version that
is exquisitely sweet, and very low
a token, marginal, drop in the bucket

a steadily marginalized beverage
like the cold damp spot of her own drool
It was so apparent
that I openly volunteered to play Rocky anytime she does Janet

 

 

Life Is a Strain for Me Much of the Time

 

This planet has—or rather had—a problem
it simply feels flat most of the time
the way a few very rich people do now

they leave off the breathing Americans
in solitary confinement
in the arctic winter, when the sky
had a lot of energy
and the mosquitoes were not in full force
(think pill bugs of the sea
involved in bloody feudal wars ...

some were shoddier than others
Some were taught to play on the violin
Some were nobles who had upset the king
Some were actively connected to the actual events

an old lantern lit the men’s faces
the mud was at least ankle deep

It was the constant darkness more than the cold
the standard average-student mold

Just as your heart goes out to the man
when you learn that he was abusive and miserable
sometimes it seems odd that topless bathing isn't allowed

when we give away use of roads
we get too much cheese

five of the six dioramas show
you can trust the federal government
to be cheaper than coal

even the smart kids
burned the good food in front of us
in favor of the articulation of existing paradigms
It is cleaner when burned.

The naive reader may believe that you feel uncomfortable
because of the appearance of your eye and eyelid
But the real problem is that
alcohol was the primary agent for the development of Western civilization
around a large quantity of dog poop

 

 

There Is Very Little Love and Companionship in My Family as Compared to Other Homes

 

With everyone doing their own thing
all he does is stand on his head and win games
while trying to suck blood out of a turnip.

He thinks the world today is upside-down;
What counts is waiting on walls
For the arrogant time-pleaser
with his assurances of love braced with sentences.

He is an out and out egotist
He likes his love different to anyone else
But all he wanted to know about was love.

This produces a slave who is also extravagant
He planned to save to produce distinctive,
lifestyle centered cars for young buyers
but he did not have the spirit of Christ

Who was he? Why wasn’t he on the earth?

Because she more than likely came from a home where
here and there the suggestion of an uncomforting pleasure
was shown in such a bountiful way right through the ages

She asked her audience to send in
single-paragraph romance stories.
The stories are amazing … depressing.
In general they mean very little.

She was a big woman, with lots of hair
She felt that her life was being made up
From a book of love stories told by God

Where people are reading
THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS
but not jumping into bed with one another.

So much care and effort was put into the dragon
There was very little left on how to perform oral sex.

I saw right away that what these children need
Were books full of lust, sex and deceit
in a way that has previously seemed repulsive to me

where some gimp you’ll never hear of again
hugged the woman’s knees tightly and prepared
to make the rupture only the more violent

anyone else noticed that this is actually all about people rowing, fighting even raping one another?

This is an epic which has got nothing heroic about it.
The movie is very slow so do not expect a wild ride.

I mean no offense to those who lost their lives
I don’t mean in Germany, either, under the Nazis

I mean people who care passionately for poetry